The Ocean Race Europe: Meilhat takes the spoils in Portsmouth while Team Malizia gets in just ahead of Paprec Arkéa

Meilhat, who finished fifth in the last Vendée Globe on board his Guillaume Verdier-designed foiler, looked tired but delighted to have scored a convincing opening win in this five-stage fully-crewed grand-prix that finishes at Boka Bay in Montenegro in mid-September.

But even in his moment of triumph the 43-year-old Frenchman warned that the second leg – the longest of the race, which starts on Sunday, and takes the fleet out into the Atlantic before finishing at Cartagena in Spain – would be a different challenge.

“This was the perfect leg for us,” he said after docking at Portsmouth’s Gunwharf Quays in bright morning sunshine. “The next one will be different. It will be more offshore racing so probably it will be harder to have this kind of lead. But yes, we don’t give up and we will try to do our best.”

Biotherm was quick off the mark in the early stages of this highly technical leg, and matched early leader Paprec Arkéa skippered by Yoann Richomme, before taking the initiative off the north coast of Denmark with Biotherm benefitting from superior upwind speed.

Meilhat then had his nerves tested as he and his crew remained out in front for the rest of a four-day leg that featured long upwind sections and phases of light winds in strong tidal currents and large exclusion zones. “But I was really happy because we went through many transitions upwind from east to west, and it was hard sometimes to be stopped and see the other guys coming back, but actually the distance was always about 15 miles so it was OK,” he said.

Meilhat is supported in this race by a superb crew made up of the British-Australian Ocean Race veteran Jack Bouttell, the British Vendée Globe sailor Sam Goodchild and the French sailor Amélie Grassi. Bouttell said the crew had prepared a watch schedule before they left Kiel, but then never looked at it again, preferring an informal set-up onboard.

“Bascially, Sam was opposite Paul and I was opposite Amélie,” he said. “I think between ourselves it was based more on feeling and how the other was doing. So there were times when one of us would cover for the other for a bit and we did that quite fluidly.”

Bouttell reckons Biotherm is an ideal design for this race even if leg two might prove a tougher test. “The boat is really light, with a very simple and powerful hull shape. It accelerates quickly onto the foil and the foils are all-rounders, so it’s quite easy to use them and they are quite forgiving,” he said. “Compared to the rest of the fleet, if there is some strong downwind in heavy wind, I think we’ll struggle a bit but the rest of the time – and upwind from light-to-strong – we seemed to be pretty strong and even reaching as well, so I was pretty happy,” he added.

Source:  @IMOCA